Status of GST Audit done for FY 2017-18

GST Audit:

As per Section 2(13) of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017, the meaning of Audit has been stated as under-

‘“Audit” means the examination of records, returns and other documents maintained or furnished by the registered person under this Act or the rules made thereunder or under any other law for the time being in force to verify the correctness of turnover declared, taxes paid, refund claimed and input tax credit availed, and to assess his compliance with the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder.’

GST Audit are considered to be very important for all those taxpayers having GST Registration.

GSTR-9 Form

Data related to Annual Return filing in GSTR-9 Form and GSTR-9C Form for the year 2017-18:

The taxpayer has to file Annual Return in GSTR-9 Form and a reconciliation statement in Form GSTR-9C for each financial year. The status for the financial year 2017-18 related to the conducted audit as on the 12th February, 2020 is as follows-

  1. Total number of taxpayers who were mandated to file GSTR-9 Form is 12.42 Lakhs.
  2. Number of taxpayers out of 12.42 Lakhs, who filed Form GSTR-1 and Form GSTR-3B are 9.98 Lakhs, which is 80.3% of the total mandated taxpayers.
  3. Number of taxpayers who filed GSTR-9 Form out of 9.98 Lakhs are 9.11 Lakhs, which is 91.3% of the total number.
  4. Number of taxpayers out of 9.11 Lakhs, around 92.3% of the people filed Form GSTR-9C, which is 8.42 Lakhs.

Important facts to note related to the above stated data:

  1. The GSTR-9 Form is mandatory to be filed by all the taxpayer who have a business with an aggregate turnover of above Rs.2 Crore.
  2. For rest of the taxpayers having a turnover below the prescribed limit, Form GSTR-9 is optional to file.
  3. One must file all the due Form GSTR-1 and Form GSTR-3B with compulsion, in order to file GSTR-9 Form.
  4. One cannot file Form GSTR-9C if they have not filed GSTR-9 Form.
  5. Apart from the total12.42 Lakh taxpayers who were mandated to file the returns, around 32.92 Lakh taxpayers who were not mandated to file it, has filed the same on time.
  6. Also, 1.04 Lakh taxpayers who were not required to file the Form GSTR-9C have filed it anyways.

Data related to Annual Return filing in GSTR-9 Form for the year 2017-18:

The following are the factual data related to the number of taxpayers who filed annual returns for the year 2017-18 in GSTR-9 Form-

  1. Around 92.58 Lakh number of taxpayers were eligible for filing GSTR-9 Form.
  2. Out of these around 80.16 Lakh taxpayers were not mandated to file the GSTR-9 Form.
  3. This means 12.42 Lakh taxpayers had to file this form.

Important facts to note related to the above stated data:

  1. The GSTR-9 Form is mandatory to be filed by all the taxpayer who have a business with an aggregate turnover of above Rs.2 Crore. Also, the taxpayer is required have GST Audit Service conducted at the place of their business.
  2. For rest of the taxpayers having a turnover below the prescribed limit, Form GSTR-9 is optional to file.
  3. It is compulsory to file Form GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for filing GSTR-9 Form.
  4. One cannot file GSTR-9C, if they have not filed GSTR-9 Form.
Author: Anil Agrawal
EZYBIZ India Consulting LLP, New Delhi. The firm is business and tax consultancy firm providing consultancy in Taxation, Regulatory, Transfer pricing, Valuation, Corporate funding and Business set up matters. He may be reached at 9899217778 or anil@ezybizindia.in.